It's Monday Only in Your Mind: You Are Not Your Thoughts

The Four Principles of the Conditioned Mind

If there isn't a process in place to understand why one thinks, says, and does what they do, what's done will continue to randomly happen and life will be lived as if it's a game of chance.

Here are "The Four Principles of the Conditioned Mind"

1. The Principle of a Conditioned Mind - Understanding.

This is a vital building block to the other principles because without understanding what one is truly up against, the Conditioned Mind will remain at the controls of one's life. This conditioning is so subtle, it remains hidden even if one's life seems it's outwardly perfect. The moment one thinks about something, it can be chalked up it's from a Conditioned Mind Pattern. How do I know this you may ask, because you wouldn't think it in the first place if the conditioning wasn't already in place. This is the beginning of understanding where your thoughts arise from and what can be done to not be controlled by them.

2. The Principle of what causes the Conditioning - Attachment

Once there's an understanding of Principle One the next Principle addresses what embeds the Conditioned Mind Pattern into one's subconscious. This occurs because of attachment which is to one's I Self, as it's described in my book. It's this story of I that one has been creating their entire existence and it's where all attachment arises from. Pure and simple if one didn't create this I Self, there would be nobody to attach to a thought.

3. The Principle of Awareness of the Conditioning - Realizing

So now there's a deeper understanding of why one thinks, says, and does what they do. What happens in Principle Three is there's a realization of one's behavior and it's seen how so many times one has acted in ways that wasn't beneficial to themselves or anyone else. In this realization there's finally a choice, that for years wasn't there. Life occurs, the conditioning arises, but now it's understood so there's no attachment to what arises. Although the mind will try, but it's through this realization that allows one to see it's your own mind that's telling you to act in ways that isn't beneficial to yourself or anyone else.

4. The Principle of Conditioned Mind Freedom - Practice

Principle Four is the glue that holds the process of these principles together. These Four Principles allow something tangible to be held onto so one sees how putting a practice in place allows the mind to settle. The more one practices, the more one's mind settles and with a settled mind there's much more awareness of the first three principles and with more awareness of the first three principles, the mind settles more. This goes round and round and as it does, these principle feed off each other as the mind naturally aligns with its true nature of stillness.

It's written in the bible to "Be Still" it doesn't say read another book, get a spouse, a degree, a better job, or so on, not that there's anything wrong with any of theses, but it's in the practice of sitting that one develops the discipline necessary for these principle to take hold. If and when the time comes for a deeper self investigation to expose the lies of the Conditioned Mind even further, the 12 Steps to Freedom would be the next step in the process of waking up and breaking the hold of one's Conditioned Mind.